Divorcing for Seniors – Part 5 Counting on Social Security

An important part of alimony (spousal maintenance) and equitable distribution (property division) is calculating Social Security.

Here are some basic facts:

Once clients become 62 and are divorced from a marriage that was longer than 10 years, they could possibly collect benefits from their previous partner’s Social Security. For this to happen, the client must not be entitled to a higher benefit according to his/her own employment record, and they must remain unmarried. If the former spouse is over 62 years old and isn’t at retirement age, he/she could possibly get derived benefits before the former spouse starts collecting. For this to occur, the individual would have to be divorced for a minimum of 2 years prior to collecting. If a spouse gets remarried after the divorce is final, any rights to his former partner’s Social Security benefits are relinquished and will now fall under the benefits of the current spouse. If the individual should remarry the spouse he/she divorced previously, he/she then reclaims the Social Security benefits of the current spouse.

What happens if one of the spouses dies? The surviving former spouse may be in a position to receive 100% survivor benefits provided that the marriage lasted more than 10 years and the surviving (former) spouse is a minimum of 60 years old (50 if disabled).

For a full review of your divorce as a senior, count on Brandon Legal Group. Your initial consultation s free